The end-of-the-year holidays gave me the opportunity to relax, unwind and then catch-up as much as possible with what is new. I enjoyed reading Daniel Pink’s thought-provoking book, “A Whole New Mind” which discussed the ideal skills that need to be taught in schools to prepare students for work and life these days. Through the chapters, the author explained the way our existence is affected more and more by three forces: 1) Material abundance generating a need for products that are not only unique but attractive and meaningful; 2) Asian workers taking over routine jobs at a very low cost; and 3) Automated jobs such as software programming, medical diagnosis and legal advice, being performed by computers. All these current factors require changes in what is being taught in schools. Kids now need to develop artistic and emotional abilities, as well as a capacity to detect patterns, behaviors and opportunities, and an overall vision that can drive them toward innovation. In addition, students nowadays have a need to acquire skills that will make them empathetic, understand human interactions, and find meaning in the things they do.
It was interesting to read how some schools are starting to direct their attention and time to art. An example given in the book is a high school that uses design to teach core academic subjects giving students a daily art or design class period. This institution aims for students to develop empathy, detect patterns, and acquire a holistic understanding of the context through design. Hopefully, these students will be able to apply these design skills further on in their lives.
Throughout the book, the author clearly shows that to be successful in these times, students require a whole new mind where the left and right sides of the brain work hand-in-hand having the left side taking care of the sequential, logical, and analytical chores and the right side being in charge of inventions, empathy, happiness, and meaning. As a result, schools need be teaching in a way that helps students develop abilities not just from the left side, but from both sides of the brain.
My perspective of students who are artists but have a difficult time with their academic work has changed. They are already strong in aptitudes that are needed for the 21st century and I can see that there is a lot to learn from them. For students who are not there yet, technology that is available in the school’s lab as well as in the Internet can offer students many tools to develop the skills that are needed. Students can use them to create videos, pictures, songs, slide shows, podcasts, collages, storybooks, etc. The possibilities are unlimited. One thing I could do in class, is encourage students to be more creative adding art, music, animations, videos, sounds, etc, to their assignments. Students need to know that attractiveness does make a difference. It’s no longer a matter of just entering information. The way information is presented and the way it gets to people is relevant.
If you have any ideas or lessons that could help develop right-side skills using technology, please share them in a comment. I would love to read them.
I think this is very important information for our little children that have just started in school, to enfasize in the creative zone...Thank you Mary Bell for sharing this with us.
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